Not everyone is university material. Not every student wants to be saddled with burdensome college debt if scholarships aren’t within reach. Every parent can’t afford to send their children to an institution of higher learning.

For generations, going to college was the badge of success. To a degree, it still is and that’s terrific.

The Collier school district reports its Class of 2018 earned $41.4 million in scholarships, an increase of more than $6 million from 2017. Its students will attend about 265 different colleges and universities.

Lee’s larger district reports more than $54 million of scholarships. But other data is telling. In Lee’s Class of 2018, nearly 3,700 plan to attend a college or university. About 500 plan to go to a technical school. Compare those figures with 250 students going directly into the workforce.

In Southwest Florida, though, what choices have there really been for those not college-bound?

The region’s economy has too long been built around hospitality, retail, agriculture and construction, providing some of the lowest-paying jobs on the occupational totem pole. Nurse? Medic? Teacher? Law officer? The pay for entry-level jobs in these honorable professions hasn’t kept pace with the area’s high cost of living, fueled by spiraling housing expenses.

For a single, young professional, good luck making ends meet. A couple without kids? Much easier financially. Start a family? We’ve heard from those in the workforce who have wrestled with whether the expense of child care, if you can find it, will be costlier than reverting to a one-income household, which in turn creates a financial strain on the family.

What’s promising?

Some say fixing this is the school districts’ responsibility. That oversimplified answer ignores the school funding formula, mostly in the Legislature’s hands. A Legislature, we’d add, that has left Florida in the bottom 10 among states in per-student funding and reduced the tax rate that districts can levy for capital investments.

The grant application says iTech’s current machinist program can accommodate 24 students at a time, yet local manufacturers expect to grow their workforce by 1,400 employees within five years. We're encouraged by the centralized site under consideration; Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce officials told our editorial board it’s targeted at a vacant building in Golden Gate.

Among other recent pluses:

• Lee’s School Board and superintendent added a career-technical college in its recent list of projects that would come to fruition if voters on Nov. 6 approve a half-percent local sales tax for 10 years.

• One project on Collier’s Nov. 6 referendum to raise the sales tax by 1 percent locally for up to seven years is a workforce training center on which the chamber and Florida SouthWestern State College would collaborate.

• Hodges University and the chamber are conducting a nine-month workforce skills training study with a $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Collier County.

A recent guest commentary by Hodges President John Meyer says the average annual salary in Southwest Florida is $5,300 behind the state’s and $12,500 behind the nation’s. That underscores how badly workforce training is needed to better diversify our economy.